A long time ago (back in the first 200 blogs I believe) I mentioned that it is so much easier to destroy than to create. The same axiom holds true for consuming vs. creating. I spent the past week creating this wonderful Minecraft experience for my kids and they’re going to complete it in mere hours. As a writer I know this time deflation all too well. I take weeks or even months to create a thrilling novella and the average reader knocks it out in about the time it takes to clear a poop. While being able to distract and perhaps even educate someone for that long is quite rewarding, I do wish the time of consumption reflected the time of creation in a less fractional sense.
Realizing this conundrum has no real solution, I recognize it is infinitely important for me to enjoy the creation process as much if not more than the pleasure of knowing someone enjoyed your work. This idea of process is what I try to communicate most as a teacher, but I worry that process doesn’t matter to people nearly as much as I felt it did to people when I was a student. Sure, there was apathy then too, but process had purpose. Now purpose appears to be the reward, or in the corporate sense, the profit margin. Call it a sad side effect of capitalism.
Some Thoughts:
- Maybe it is a sign of early onset Alzheimer’s, but I am at the point where big words just spring to mind to fit a situation without me really understanding what those words means other than knowing that they fit the situation.